This phoning home tactic by AVG certainly seems to be borrowing a page from Microsoft which has instituted their WGA (Windows Genuine Advantage) pirated software utility to "track" supposedly illegal copies of the Windows operating system.ĪVG deserves to be commended for continuing to offer free anti-virus protection to end-users, but I'm a bit leery of their methods for attempting to detect business users breaking their licensing terms, which will no doubt result in false positives. They're supposed to read the licensing terms, but who does these days? However, often times users take these laptops to tradeshows or hotels, outside the protected corporate network, get infected with a virus, google "free antivirus software" and find AVG as one of the search results. Technically, the AVG antivirus software (free version) shouldn't have been installed on the laptop since it violates their licensing agreement. I actually received this error on a shared corporate laptop. I haven't fully tested how or when AVG displays this popup, but I wish AVG's algorithm would at least set the number of PCs to >5 before flagging as an ilegal copy, since many people have multiple PCs in their homes. If it notices mutiple PCs from the same IP address downloading the updates, it assumes you are using it in a business environment. I believe the AVG antivirus software is tracking IP address connections to their virus update server. The only caveat is that you are only supposed to use their software for personal use and not business. Unlike many antivirus software solutions, this "free" offer isn't simply a trial - it's perpetually free. Popup message with link asking you to Become LegalĪVG became very popular with many users since it essentially offers a feature-packed anti-virus program free of charge with free antivirus signature file updates. It welcomes you with what I took as a sarcastic "Welcome to the legal AVG community!". Clicking the link brings you to AVG's website where you are offered the paid professional version to purchase. It then displays a popup message with a hyperlink to 'become legal'.
AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition now complains (as of 2 days ago) if it detects you have more than 1 machine at home running AVG Free Edition.
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